A window treatment may be mounted in front of one or more windows, for example to prevent sunlight from entering a space and/or to provide privacy. Window treatments may include, for example, roller shades, roman shades, venetian blinds, or draperies. A roller shade typically includes a flexible covering material, such as a shade fabric, that is wound onto an elongated roller tube. Such a roller shade may include a weighted hembar located at a lower end of the shade fabric. The hembar may cause the shade fabric to hang in front of one or more windows that the roller shade is mounted in front of.
Typically, a window treatment includes a housing that is configured to be attached to structure, such as a window frame. The housing may be configured to support one or more components of the window treatment in a mounted position. For example, the housing of a typical roller shade may be configured to operably support the roller tube, such that the covering material may be raised and lowered.
Such a housing may include a rail that is elongate between opposed ends, and a pair of housing brackets that are configured to attach to the ends of the rail. The housing brackets may be configured to support respective ends of the roller tube. In a typical configuration of such a housing, the rail may be configured to be attached to structure surrounding an opening, for example using fasteners such as screws. The housing brackets may be configured to be snapped into place at corresponding ends of the rail. The roller tube may then be attached to the housing brackets.
However, such snap-in mounting brackets may be prone to becoming detached from the rail, for example if the roller tube is bumped or otherwise dislodged from its snapped-in position relative to the rail. A known solution to such a problem is to secure the housing brackets in place relative to the rail, for example using screws.
However, such a solution may have undesirable consequences. For example, installing screws in a window treatment housing may be difficult or awkward with common tools (e.g., due to obstructing parts, cramped space, awkward tool angles, etc.). Additionally, once such a window treatment is installed and in a fully assembled configuration, components of the window treatment, such as the roller tube, may conceal the screws and/or obstruct access to them, which may make subsequent maintenance or removal undesirably difficult (e.g., to a user that did not install the window treatment or who is unfamiliar with how the housing brackets are secured to the rail).